Heading into the 2025 baseball season, the Georgia Bulldogs faced a pressing question on how they planned to replace their two biggest bats from last year: Charlie Condon and Cory Collins.
Condon led the NCAA in batting average and home runs with 37 and Collins led the NCAA in on-base percentage.
While it’s true that the record-breaking, NCAA-leading shoes of Condon and Collins are difficult ones to fill, Georgia had no worries about their ability to produce runs in the 2025 season.
“I truly believe we will hit more home runs this year,” sophomore Tre Phelps said in an interview with GeorgiaDogs.com before the start of the season. “And you can stamp that.”
Phelps is spot on so far. With 10 home runs in their SEC opening series versus Kentucky, the Bulldogs jumped to the top of the NCAA leaderboard for home runs with 57. Last year during this time, Georgia had 56 home runs.
Georgia’s leading home run hitters are Ryland Zaborowski with 12 and Robbie Burnett with 10.
Burnett is a 5-foot-10 second baseman who is explosive and quick in every element of the game.
“Robbie Burnett’s a pro man, I don’t know what to tell people,” head coach Wes Johnson said of Burnett after Game 1 versus Kentucky.
His performance in Game 3 of the Kentucky series perfectly represents his diversity as a player. His four hits consisted of a home run, a three-RBI double into right-center, and two bloopers to second base, of which he beat out the throw to first for a hit.
Burnett couldn’t be stopped even with the infield completely shifted to the right side.
On the defensive side, Burnett executed a stellar double play to end the second inning. He made a sliding catch on a line drive and, without hesitation, quickly popped up on one knee to throw out the runner at first who was attempting to tag up.
During the three-game Kentucky series, Zaborowski had two home runs and six hits as the designated hitter, extending his hitting streak to 10 games.
His homers draw similarities to those of last year’s home run king, Charlie Condon: a crack of the bat louder than ever that catapults the ball beyond the trees that border Foley Field.
Johnson said that Zaborowski’s success at the plate is unsurprising, given his work off the field.
“He studies the game, examines the game, and works extremely, extremely hard,” said Johnson. “He’s the model player off the field.”
Zaborowski’s 12 home runs and Burnett’s 10 only make up 22 of the Bulldogs’ 57 home runs this season, which speaks to the depth of the Georgia lineup.
“We don’t have Charlie Condon, but we’ve got depth,” said Johnson.
In a sport like baseball, where you’re only as good as your weakest link, Georgia is in good shape to continue winning big games using its roster depth like it did this weekend against Kentucky.
The No.4-ranked Bulldogs are 21-2 overall and 2-1 in conference place. Up next, the Bulldogs hit the road for a challenging conference series against the Florida Gators, starting at 6:30 p.m. ET Friday in Gainesville, Florida.
